


Rite of Movement

by GracieBirdie



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 01, Cannibalism, Creature Stiles Stilinski, Dom/sub Undertones, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Fluff and Angst, Language Barrier, M/M, Mild Gore, Pre-Canon, Slow Build, but only referenced to, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 14:49:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20027599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GracieBirdie/pseuds/GracieBirdie
Summary: He looked down into the water under him and thought for a moment he'd found a dead body, it was so pale, but then it looked up at him and-It wasn't a body.It was the most beautiful boy he'd ever seen in his life.He was pale and his eyes were so wide and shining and there was something almost ethereal about them.And then Peter realized if he didn't get some air he was going to drown.





	Rite of Movement

**Author's Note:**

> Okay some quick notes before you jump in: extra special thanks to [my babe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TailorNorata/pseuds/TailorNorata/works?fandom_id=258526) who told me all about what the heck a nöck even was when I was like "mermaids, am I right?" (they also proof-read this and said I captured the spirit of a nöck even tho I had no clue what I was doing...)
> 
> So, nöcks. The very basic idea of them is that they live in lakes, have magic alternate dimension bubbles that they can live in or keep...children in...some times as slaves, some times for food... they're also kind of like sirens that don't sing and mermaids that don't have tails.
> 
> so I did not go down the child-eating/enslaving path but Stiles' connection to children is important, as you will see through out the story.
> 
> next, while Peter calls Stiles boy almost exclusively, Stiles is not underage. 
> 
> (as for the eating disorder, Stiles almost starves at one point and he starts to exhibit mild food hording, it's not actually a plot point, just a warning.)
> 
> unfortunately necessary disclaimer: there are going to be spelling/grammatical errors in this. I know this, no I'm not going to fix it now that I've already posted. No I don't want a beta. Anyone who still decides to point these things out to me will get a mean and/or bitchy response because I warned you. Don't like it don't read it.

Stiles had been running for so long he couldn't even remember what it felt like to stop.

But he thought he finally could.

The pond wasn't a lake but it had a good amount of fish in it and it was in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

He hadn't seen any houses or even hiking trails for miles and miles.

The only sign of humans at all was an old dock but it was overgrown with thick phragmite, the weed growing so tall it almost completely covered the wood planks.

Stiles carefully slipped into the shallows before ducking his head under the water to make sure the pond wasn't already occupied.

It would be his terrible luck that he would finally find the perfect body of water only for it to already have someone living in it. And the pond was small enough that if someone  _ was _ living in it they probably wouldn't want to share.

He couldn't see any signs of creatures bigger than bass but that was in the shallows, if this was someone's home they would be living in the deepest part of the pond.

He sat up in the water and pulled his shoes off with disgust. He hated shoes. If he didn't have to wear them again for the rest of his life he'd be happy. He tossed the shoes over his shoulder and onto the shore before pulling off his now wet socks with a grimace. Socks were a little bit more tolerable than shoes but not by much.

Once he could feel the cool water on his feet he realized that it would feel terrible to try to swim with wet jeans on so he pulled those off too and then pulled of his over shirt and t-shirt for good measure.

It was immensely freeing to be naked and in water again. He'd missed it terribly.

He slid fully into the pond and swam through the pondweeds that grew along the bottom of it.

The aquatic life of the pond scattered as he swam past them and excitement filled him at how  _ much _ there was for him to eat. The amount of fish and craw fish, turtles and frogs was a very good sign that there were no large predators inside the pond.

He swam deeper, fighting not to catch the fish that flashed past him. He reached the deepest part of the pond quickly and was mildly disappointed that it was only about ten feet, he could still see sunlight through the weeds.

But it was good enough. Almost perfect in fact. Just it being so far away from humans made up for its lack of depth.

And Stiles was so tired. He was so homesick, the pond would make a wonderful home for him. Just for Stiles and Stiles alone.

***

As plentiful as the pond was Stiles had been taught to be careful not to disrupt the ecosystem too much. He didn't want to overeat and run out of food. This was his new home and he was going to have to make sure he'd be able to live in it for years to come.

His magic was a faint little flash of a spark under his fingertips and he had to make sure that no matter how long it took for it to grow back into its full strength that he would be able to survive. His mother would be so disappointed in him if he didn't.  


For the first few days in his new home Stiles just ate and slept. He'd been running so long it felt wonderful to just do... nothing.

But of course he got bored quickly.

And without his magic there really wasn't much he could do in the middle of a pond in the middle of nowhere.

So he settled in the shallows, blending in with the reeds and waiting for prey to come by. Like a crocodile. Or a sniper, he thought in amusement.

It took hours of even more boredom for a deer to come by. He held his breath as it got closer to the edge of the pond. It leaned it's great head down to the surface of the water and Stiles shot up and out of the water, headed right towards the deer... and missed it completely.

He landed hard on the rocky shore of the pond and watched the deer run off. He sighed deeply and slipped back into the water. He really wasn't made for physical hunting outside the water and it showed.

He sulkily curled back up in the reeds and took a nap because he  _ could _ .

***

The weather got cold and Stiles' magic still didn't work correctly. He fought back tears of frustration as he struggled to figure out what to do for the winter.

There were plenty of fish and amphibians, even reptiles, that he would be able to eat but he had no idea what he would do if the pond froze over. He could, and did, live in cold water but he had no idea if he could live in  _ ice cold _ water.

Winter had been the only time he and his mother had lived full time inside his father's lake house. Winter had been Stiles' favorite season, the three of them would curl up in front of the fireplace, each of them with their own book, occasional breaking the silence to read a passage out loud or tell a joke.

Stiles' heart ached terribly at the memories. He pushed them away to curl up at the bottom of the pond.

He thought about leaving the pond for the winter and finding somewhere human to stay but he had no idea how far he was from the nearest town, he only knew it was far enough that humans didn't bother to come all the way out to his pond. He didn't have any clothes, he didn't even have any  _ shoes _ to protect him from the falling snow. Everything he'd been wearing when he first found the pond has rotted away in the water.

He cursed his non-functioning magic. If his magic would only work he wouldn't  _ need _ to freeze inside his pond he could just go to his home.  


A sharp intense pain hit him as he realized he couldn't even go home anymore. His mother had made their home underwater and his father had made their home on land.

He missed his mother.  


***

The winter had been hard. Every time Stiles had fallen asleep he'd been terrified he wouldn't wake up again. The population of the pond had dropped considerably because the top of the pond had frozen over and Stiles hadn't been able to generate enough force under the water to break it, even with a rock. Before the water had frozen Stiles had been able to supplement his diet by catching the little animals that came to the pond to drink in snares but stuck under the water he'd only been able to eat fish. He couldn't even eat frogs because they were all hibernating on the pond shore.

By the time the weather had warmed enough for the ice to crack Stiles was terrified that there wouldn't have been enough fish to repopulate in the spring.

Stiles finally broke through the ice and pulled himself onto the shore, shaking in the cold air but reveling in the sense of freedom just having the  _ choice _ to leave his pond brought.

He went about setting out more traps on the shore line before he curled back up in the reeds at the edge of the freezing water. Now that he was out he was going to make damn sure he didn't get stuck back under the ice.

***

Spring came around and Stiles' magic still didn't work the way it should have and he was starting to suspect what the problem was.

Stiles' kind didn't  _ need _ to eat humans to live but humans gave them the most energy.

Stiles' desire for human's wasn't as strong as his mothers' and he wasn't exactly sure why, maybe it had something to do with his father being a human himself. Stiles had never been able to see a difference between himself and his mother despite his mixed blood but maybe that was it.

Well, Stiles wasn't going to be leaving his pond to go hunt humans down, so he would just have to keep living as he had been and wait for his magic to come back on it's own.

***

By the time a human came to Stiles' pond it was getting very close to summer and Stiles' magic was still so weak that Stiles was actually starting to get a little desperate.

He stared at the human through the reeds, watched as it pulled a backpack off and pulled something out of the pack.

It scooped up water from the edge of the pond and ran it through whatever it was holding, pumping a nozzle into a water bottle and Stiles realized it was a water purifier.

He was shocked at the thought he was so far from a town that a human wouldn't be able to carry enough water.

He quickly shook away that thought and silently swam closer to the human. He got closer and closer and the human still didn't notice him. As he moved he realized he hadn't had a conversation with, well, anyone in a very long time. He decided that maybe he should try and talk to the human a little first. Maybe they were a good conversationalist, good enough to alleviate Stiles' boredom for a while.

Finally he got close enough that he could say "Hi!" but... only sounds come out of his mouth.

The human shrieked and threw the water purifier at Stiles.

Stiles was so surprised at not being able to speak that he didn't manage to dodge the object and it hit him hard in the head.

Through the pain and blood he watched as the human ran away, back into the woods.

Stiles sniffled in frustration and hunger.

He washed the blood off of his face and glared in the direction the human had gone. That had been even  _ more _ humiliating than the time he'd tried to catch a deer.

At least the human had forgotten it's backpack. Maybe there would be something interesting in that.

He pulled himself up onto the shore and slid up the rocks until he reached the pack. He fumbled at the zippers, struggling to remember how to open them for a moment, before he figured it out. He reached inside and inspected each item as he came across it.

There were clothes and a blanket that he set off to the side, away from the water so save for later, just in case he needed them for...some reason or another.

He pulled out several things that were familiar but he couldn't remember what they were and to his surprise he realized he was starting to cry.

Had he really been gone so long that he'd forgotten the basics of being around humans?

His mother had never gone out of her way to learn about humans, only becoming interested when she met his father.

His father, who had taught her and then Stiles about the human world.

Stiles had once known so much about humans that his father had told him he could live among them and Stiles had even  _ thought _ about doing that.

But that had been before his father had been murdered by humans.

Now the only thing Stiles wanted from humans was to make them meals.

***

Stiles could feel himself getting weaker.

The fish had barely spawned enough offspring to feed Stiles through fall and he had no idea what he was going to eat through the winter.

His magic didn't even tingle at his fingers anymore.

No wonder no one had been living in the pond, there wasn't enough life to support someone that only ate aquatic life.

The day was hot, so hot that Stiles was just listlessly floating along the surface of the water, trying not to think about what he would do if he had to leave his pond in winter.

He heard a strange sound from the tree line and rolled his head to look, unable to understand it for a long moment.

And then out of the trees burst a whole gaggle of children.

Stiles instantly slipped back under the water, excitement filling him at the thought of being able to catch one of them.

He peeked out of the water to check where the children were and saw that they'd been joined by several adults.

He cursed silently before he remembered that a human adult had more meat on their bones than a human child.

They all seemed to be gathered around one side of the pond so Stiles slipped over to the edge, sliding through the reeds on the edges of the water until he was close enough he could grab one of them quickly but far enough away that they wouldn't notice him.

He watched, and waited for an adult to come into the water far enough that Stiles would be able to catch it.

Finally one of the larger of the adults swam out enough that Stiles could slip under it and wrap his hand around it's ankle, dragging it down before it could realize what was going on.

But then, to his immense surprise, instead of struggling or kicking at Stiles it curled forward and it's eyes' started glowing.

Stiles gasped in shock and his grip loosened enough that the human managed to pull away.

Stiles floated, watching the human swim away, baffled over what had just happened.

Human's eyes couldn't do that, it must have just been a trick of the watery sunlight.

He gathered himself together and shot after the human, determined not to let his meal escape.

He easily caught up despite the human's head start and he slipped around to it's front to wrap his arms around the human's chest without having to leave the water.

Again the human surprised him, instead of just struggling it stopped swimming to reach it's hands down to push at Stiles' shoulders. And then it's hand went for his neck. He leaned away from the movement and caught sight of the hand.

It had  _ claws _ .

And Stiles' realized that this was not a human.

Stiles instantly let go. He pulled his head out of the water and started trying to apologize for trying to drown the being but like the time he'd tried to talk to a human only sounds and chirps came out of his mouth.

The being was treading water in front of him, shock clear on their face and Stiles saw that their face looked odd, not at all like a human's would.

Stiles had no idea why he hadn't noticed before. He also had no idea what sort of being they were. Stiles knew the most about beings that lived in water and only knew the very basics about land beings.

He heard shouting from the shore and turned to see that all the children had gotten out of the water while several of the adults had gotten in, all of them wading towards Stiles and shouting.

Stiles felt tears spring up as he realized he couldn't understand what they were saying.

He started so slide back into the water, to sink back to his little spot of weeds at the bottom of the pond, when his would-be pray caught his arm.

Stiles just floated there because after almost killing them, Stiles figured the being could do what they wanted to Stiles.

The being started to swim to the shore without letting go of Stiles' arm so Stiles just... let them pull him along.

Once they reached the shallows the being stood up but Stiles didn't even try. If he couldn't talk he knew he wouldn't be able to walk on dry land.

As if realizing this the being bend down and carefully picked Stiles up, one arm under his legs and the other around his back.

Stiles let them. He was surrounded by the beings now, and he was so hungry that he'd never be able to kill one of them, let alone the whole group of them.

The being holding him spoke and Stiles still couldn't understand the words but he could  _ feel _ the rumble of them through their chest.

It was... strangely nice. The being was radiating heat like the sun and after how cool the pond always was Stiles didn't mind being so close to a bit of warmth.

The being stopped just at the edge of the pond and then they abruptly sat down, with Stiles sitting in their lap.

One of the other beings held out a big strip of fabric that Stiles thought he used to know the name of.

Stiles' being took the fabric and draped it over his lap for some reason.

The being was speaking again and Stiles decided their voice was actually very nice.

Stiles could see the children off to the side, far from the water and watching Stiles with huge eyes. Some of them had glowing golden eyes and faces like his being had.

He felt horrible at the thought that he could have eaten one of them without knowing they weren't human. He was so glad his being had showed him before anything really bad could happen.

Stiles' mother had drilled it into his head from a very young age that it was terribly rude to eat a being that wasn't an animal or human.

_ "There aren't enough of us as it is Mieczyslaw, we can't go around making us even less." _ she would say.

Suddenly a hand was on Stiles' chin, his being tipping Stiles' head up to look at them.

Stiles blinked, watching the way their mouth moved but it was only sounds to him, they didn't make any sense.

It could almost be a relief his father was dead if Stiles wouldn't even be able to  _ talk _ to him anymore.

Fresh tears started to fall at that terrible thought.

Stiles pulled away from the being's hand and buried his face in their chest as he sobbed. Their hand came up and started to gently stroke up and down his back comfortingly. Stiles cried harder and let himself pretend he was being hugged by someone who actually knew him.

***

Peter hadn’t really wanted to spend the day at the lake but it was hot outside, in the 90s hot and all the kids were miserable so when Cora had asked very loudly if they could go out to the lake all the kids had instantly started shrieking.

But when Peter had started to sneak off Talia had sent him a very knowing smirk and made him start packing up lunch for everyone.

At least she hadn't made him wrangle the kids.

The hike out to the lake took about an hour and a half but the trees offered shelter from the sun so no one complained too much. Except for Peter who'd ended up having to carry Sydney on his back because she twisted her ankle but refused to be taken home.

They got to the lake and the kids almost instantly jumped in while the rest of the pack set up blankets to lay out on the grass.

Peter watched the kids for several minutes before he decided that it was hot enough and they were already at the lake, he might as well just get in too.

The kids went nuts the second he stepped into the water, all of them shrieking and asking him to throw them into the water. He gave a huge sigh but agreed.

Cora got to him first and he picked her up under her arms before gently tossing her underhand into the deeper parts of the lake.

She came up and instantly started swimming back, already yelling for him to do it again.

He spent almost half an hour throwing the kids around before they finally let him go. He slipped into the deeper parts, not that the lake was really that deep. It was barely the size of a public pool but the Hales had called it a lake for as long as any of them could remember.

He started to swim laps when he felt something wrap around his ankle.

For a second he thought it was just pondweed but then it _y_ _ anked _ and he was being pulled under the water.

He forced himself not to panic because what was happening was  _ not normal _ and he needed to know what the hell was going on.

He looked down into the water under him and thought for a moment he'd found a dead body, it was so pale, but then it looked up at him and-

It wasn't a body.

It was the most beautiful boy he'd ever seen in his life.

He was pale and his eyes were so wide and shining and there was something almost ethereal about them.

And then Peter realized if he didn't get some air he was going to drown.

The boy was still staring at him, slack jawed so Peter gave his leg a little lug and the boy let go instantly.

Peter pulled himself to the surface and he suddenly realized that the boy was very much  _ not human _ and the kids should get out of the lake, just in case.

"Out of the water!" He roared, taking off for them to drag them out if he had to.

Luckily all the kids knew what his 'Danger' voice sounded like and they all almost instantly got out of the lake.

The rest of the pack looked out at him and several got up, no doubt to ask what the hell was going on, when he felt the boy wrap his arms around his chest.

He reacted without thinking, his claws sliding out to rake at the boy who was trying to pull him back under the water. He felt his shift coming over him at the sudden fear of drowning.

And then he was being let go of and the boy's head popped up in front of him.

The boy stared at him with those huge beautiful eyes and started making soft little chirping noises that sounded a little like an otter, which was strange to hear coming from someone that looked human but clearly  _ wasn't _ .

The pack was yelling questions at him and even getting into the water themselves to come see what was happening.

The boy turned his head a little to look at the pack but instead of instantly disappearing back into the water he started  _ crying _ and Peter... had no idea what he should do.

Then the boy seemed to just droop, and he started to sink into the water like he weighed a thousand pounds.

And, well, Peter was having none of that.

The boy was far too interesting for Peter to just let him disappear while Peter had so many  _ questions _ .

So he reached out and curled his hand around the closest part of the boy he could get, which turned out to be his wrist, and just gently pulled him closer to the edge of the lake so Peter wouldn't have to worry about accidentally, or on purpose, drowning. And so the pack would stop scaring the kids.

The boy let Peter pull him to shore and Peter had no idea how he was supposed to take that.

He reached the shallow water and stood up in relief. He looked down, ready to help the boy stand up too, assuming he could. He had legs but he lived in water, he might not be able to walk at all.

But the boy was just sort of flouting there in the shallows. It was extremely disconcerting to see him lying face down like that, looking like a dead body so Peter moved without really thinking. And to stop the pack from descending on the boy like, well, like a pack of wolves.

He scooped the boy up into his arms and curled a little over him so the pack would have to go through Peter to get to him.

The pack was staring at him and the boy in shock.

"He has a heartbeat." Talia said, eyes wide as she took in the sight of the boy.

"He's not human." Peter said.

The pack instantly backed away from them and Peter rolled his eyes. He swore they were all idiots.

He looked down at the boy to make sure he could actually breath outside of water like Peter thought he could. The boy was looking around the pack with big sad eyes but he was breathing completely fine so Peter walked further up along the shore.

The pack moved around him and once he was far enough from the water he wouldn't be able to drown but close enough the boy would be able to slip right back in he sat down, settling the boy in his lap so he could look him over.

His hair wasn't very long, barely at his shoulders but it was dark and had a cute wave to it. And a lot of pondweed.

He had the strangest urge to pull it out but didn't, just in case it was actually a  _ part _ of the boy.

Peter was struggling to think of exactly what the boy  _ was _ when Talia stepped up next to him and held out a towel.

Peter rolled his eyes at her but took it to hide the boy's nakedness from the kids, not that any of them would actually care.

He carefully draped the towel over the boy and he looked up at him with those eyes. They were big and ethereal and full of a sadness that Peter couldn't describe.

"Are you alright little one?" he asked. He couldn't help it, not when he was being looked at like  _ that _ .

But the boy didn't answer him. Instead he looked over to where the kids were standing and watching everything in amazement. No doubt they were only  _ just _ being held back from rushing forward and asking a thousand questions.

"Well? What are you  _ doing _ out here?" Talia asked, leaning over to try and look at the boy's face. The boy didn't even seem to notice her.

"Little one?" he asked gently, slowly and carefully tipping the boy's head up to look at Peter. "Can you understand me?"

But the boy just looked up at him in confusion, a completely lost expression on his face. Tears welled up in his eyes and he started crying softly.

And Peter had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do. Not even the  _ kids _ came to him crying. The boy leaned against Peter's chest and started to full on sob against him and Peter was lost.

He had no idea what was wrong with the boy and he obviously didn't understand what Peter was saying so he just went with his first instinct. He gently stroked the boy's back and looked up at Talia to see if she had any ideas.

She looked as baffled as he felt but she pulled herself together quickly.

"It looked like he wanted to eat you and if he eats humans we can't just leave him here, not when he can breathe outside of water." she said reasonably. While Peter hadn't heard anything about people disappearing around the lake or even in the woods that didn't mean that that couldn't  _ start _ happening.

"He can stay in the pond until we can figure out how to ask him not to eat humans on our land." she said and Peter felt himself start to relax.

The pond next to the house was smaller than the lake and had less fish but Peter could go buy more at the nearest pet shop. Or fish market.  


The pond had been his mother's project and she'd build it brick by brick herself. She'd even dug it out herself. All seven feet deep, ten feet long of it. His mother had been a very 'go big or go home' type of person and it had taken her almost a  _ year _ to dig the whole thing out.

But she'd been determined to have as huge a handmade pond as she could.

It was full to bursting with aquatic plants and a nice little waterfall that made sure the fish got enough oxygenated water.

It was breathtaking year round and Peter found himself weirdly hopeful that this strange, little water dwelling boy would like it.

***

Peter walked a bit away from the pack, the boy held carefully in his arms. No one else had offered to carry him but Peter had the uncomfortable thought that even if they  _ had _ he wouldn't have given them the boy.

He was feeling strangely  _ attached _ and he wasn't sure he liked it. But the boy was skin and bones, skin so paper thin that his veins stood out sharply and made him look delicate and breakable. He obviously hadn't been eating enough and it pulled at Peter in ways he'd never felt before.

He didn't really like it but the only way he could think to stop it was to make Talia deal with the boy and that felt even worse. So he'd just deal with wanting to feed the boy and then hopefully once he did that would be the end of it.

The boy was alternating between watching the trees as they passed and watching the kids as one by one they snuck away from the pack to drift closer to Peter and stare at the boy.

Peter rolled his eyes at the rest of the adults in the pack being so oblivious that they didn't notice all the kids disappearing but he didn't do anything to stop their game.

Peter had been thinking over the whole time they'd been in the lake and he'd realized the boy had had every opportunity to take any one of the kids but he hadn't. Peter was pragmatic enough to know that he still could but as long as Peter was around to keep an eye on everyone Peter would allow the kids to be curious. It would probably be a good learning exercise.

By the time they got home every one of the kids was walking next to Peter and the boy had started to softly chitter at them.

Cora seemed especially excited by the sounds he was making. She jumped up and down and tried to mimic the sounds but it only made the boy giggle at her.

The rest of the kids tried the sounds out and once they broke through the tree line onto the lawn they were all running around yelling and chasing each other. They were ridiculous and Peter had no idea where they got all that energy from.

Peter walked around the side of the house, the kids following him like ducks instead of wolves, while the rest of the pack went back into the house, but knowing them, they were no doubt spying on Peter through the windows. Or at least Talia would be.  


He tried not to be too annoyed that even Talia had seemed to leave him in care of both the boy  _ and _ the kids.

He stepped up to the side of the pond and looked down at the boy.

The boy didn't seem to be paying attention. He was staring up at the house in obvious interest. Peter could understand that, the house was huge. Big enough to house a whole pack of werewolves.

He careful sat down on one of the large rocks at the edge of the pond and set the boy on his lap, making sure his feet slipped into the water.

That got the boy's attention. He looked down at the pond and gasped softly. He looked up at Peter, shock on his face.

Peter gently pet his back again and pulled the towel away from him. He dropped it off to the side before he very slowly and carefully pushed the boy into the pond.

He slipped in without any protests and when he was fully in the water he looked up at Peter and gave him a soft shy little smile. Peter couldn't help but smile back.

Then the boy shot under the water and popped back up with a koi in his hands. He stared at the fish, eyes huge and hungry and he looked up at Peter questioningly.

Peter nodded and the boy grinned at him. It was like he lit up from the inside. And it was breathtaking.

His teeth were sharp little points and he dug them into the fish with gusto. Blood dripped down his hands and smeared over his mouth and Peter found he might be a tiny bit in love.

***

The boy, who everyone seemed to be convinced was some kind of mermaid, seemed to adore the pond, the kids, the koi,  _ Peter _ .

It was strange how easily he seemed to adjust to living with the pack.

Well, as much as he could live with the pack when he never left the pond.

The children spent hours every day playing as many games as they could think of that didn't have rules that needed to be explained and twice a week Peter brought more live fish for him to chase around the pond.

And when Peter wasn't bringing him fish he sat down on the large stone bench his mother used to sit on and read out loud to the boy, the way his mother had when Peter had been very young.

The boy alternated between floating around the pond on his back and curling up in Peter's lap, listening to Peter speak with an intensity no one had ever showed him before.

The boy looked like he was content, the kids were happy, and Peter felt surprisingly good but the rest of the pack seemed a little unnerved by the boy.

Laura especially didn't seem to like him. "He's so  _ creepy _ !" she complained constantly. "He doesn't even speak English!"

Luckily the rest of the pack didn't listen to her and while they didn't spend time with him they also didn't complain that they'd seemed to have accidentally stumbled upon a babysitter that they could pay in fish.

Fall came and all the kids were old enough to be in school. The boy spend the days pouting that they were gone and then spent the nights pouting that the sun set so quickly.

One evening, in about mid November, when it was starting to get actually cold, a burglar broke into the house.

Peter was the only one home, other than the boy. If Talia had been there she would have detained the foolish little human and have called the police. But she wasn't home and the full moon was coming up.

Peter caught the burglar going through the kitchen cabinets and he dug his claws into him, cutting him deeply.

He watched the fool bleed out on the tiles for a few minutes before sighing in disappointment.

That hadn't been satisfying in the least and now he had to clean blood up.

He pulled open the back door and dragged the mostly dead burglar out onto the pouch and down to back lawn. He'd take it further into the woods and bury it after he cleaned the blood up.

He was about to step back onto the pouch when he heard the familiar soft chirping sounds of the boy.

He turned around and saw the boy start to pull himself out of the pond and onto the grass. This was the first time Peter had ever seen the boy do that.

The boy pulled himself up on long wobbly legs and stumbled towards the body.

Peter was moving before he was even really thinking about it. He wrapped his arms around the boy and carefully helped him walk across the lawn.

The boy looked down at the body, eyes huge and mouth open.

Suddenly he dropped out of Peter's grip and... oh.

He clawed open the shirt the burglar was wearing and he dug his teeth into his chest, pulling a large chuck of flesh off.

He looked up at Peter as he chewed, an almost blissful look of happiness on his face. And suddenly it made sense why he never seemed to gain any weight no matter how many fish Peter fed him.

_ He didn't just eat fish _ .

Peter had never felt more like an idiot.

They had  _ met _ because the boy had tried to  _ eat Peter _ .  _ Of course _ he didn't just eat fish.

It must have been the kids that threw him off. The boy never tried to eat any of the kids no matter how annoying they were and it had made Peter forget that the boy was a predator.

"Oh, little one, I'm so sorry." he said quietly, honestly disappointed with himself for not thinking about it sooner.

The boy looked up at him and for a moment there was fear on his face, like he thought Peter would be upset with him but then it cleared and turned into the sweet pleased look he gave Peter every time he brought him fish.

Which gave Peter an idea.

He reached down and grabbed the body's arm and dragged it over to the pond. He pushed it into the water and turned to look back at the boy, who was staring at him, eyes wide with shock and glowing in the moonlight.

In just a few strides he reached the boy and scooped him up in his arms, and like he did every time Peter had to carry him around the boy curled into his chest and looked up at him with his beautiful eyes.

Peter carefully lowered the boy into the pond, but before could let go the boy rubbed his cheek against Peter's.

Peter went still in shock.

He'd scent-marked him.

He'd never done that before.

The boy chittered in his ear for a moment before he slipped off into the pond, dragging the body down with him.

Peter stared after him and started making plans on how to make sure  _ his boy _ never went hungry again.

***

Sometimes Stiles thought he'd died under the ice and gone to heaven.

The only reason he was pretty sure that wasn't what had happened was that his magic still didn't work right.

And his parents weren't there.

But other than those two things Stiles' life was pretty amazing.

He had a never ending amount of fish to eat, a beautiful pond to live, the children, and his Wolf.

That's who had found him, wolves. He had seen them changing shapes in the moonlight and it had been beautiful.

His mother had never told him about beings that could change into wolves, just about beings that could change into sharks.

The wolves all lived together in a huge house in the middle of the woods and Stiles got to live next to them.

The new pond was smaller than the last pond which had been smaller than his lake but he didn't have to worry about food because his Wolf brought him fish, so often in fact that Stiles didn't even eat the smaller ones. He let them live with him in the pond so that they could spawn even  _ more _ fish for the spring.

There was a human word for what he was doing but he couldn't remember it and he didn't think it actually mattered that much.

Even if Stiles ate every fish in the pond his Wolf would just bring him more.

His Wolf was amazing.

He was big and strong and beautiful. And he was the only one other than the children that came anywhere near the pond.

It hurt Stiles' feelings a little that the other wolves didn't like him very much but they didn't stop him from playing with the children so he tried not to let it bother him too much.

His Wolf gave him all the attention he needed.

He liked to sit next to the pond and read to Stiles. And sometimes he let Stiles curl up on his lap and listen to the way the words rumbled out of his chest.

Stiles was getting a little better with words but not by much. He was spending so much time around others that he was starting to think it had something to do with his magic and not his brain.

That made him feel a tiny bit better about the whole thing.

But it also made him more frustrated because if he could just  _ make his magic work _ he might be able to talk to his Wolf or at least figure out what his  _ name _ was.

And figure out what he called Stiles. Because he did call Stiles something, he could tell by the repeated sounds he made when looking at him.

The children called him something too but the other wolves didn't seem to call him anything at all.

Stiles was content up until the kids suddenly stopped coming to see him during the day, only coming to play with him in the evening and only staying until the sun started to set.

It was so boring without them.

At least his Wolf still came to talk to him every day.

The days were getting shorter and the weather was getting colder and Stiles was starting to get a little afraid that he would have to live in the pond under the ice again.

At least this time there would be someone to break the ice for him from the outside. And bring him food. It wouldn't be as bad as the last winter.

Still, he couldn't help but look longingly up at the big house. Maybe his Wolf would let him in, if he could only figure out how to ask.

One day when only his Wolf was in the big house a strange person went into the house through the back door.

It hadn't noticed Stiles so he just watched it sneak into the house. He wasn't worried about his Wolf, he knew he could take care of himself. His wolf was so strong after all.

He watched in interest as his Wolf crept up behind the human and-

Stiles actually gasped in surprise as his Wolf dug his claws into the humans.

Stiles thought for a moment that his Wolf would eat it, or carve it up even more but he just let it slump to the ground.

Stiles tried not to cry over the thought of such fresh meat going to waste.

His Wolf wouldn't be so cruel as to tease Stiles with so much food and then  _ not eat it _ would he?

And then his Wolf was bringing the meat outside and Stiles was moving before he really thought it through.

He hadn't been out of his pond in months and he could barely remember how to move his legs to stumble through the grass towards the  _ feast _ his Wolf had brought.

And then his Wolf was coming towards him, helping Stiles walk towards the meat and Stiles couldn't help but coo at him in pleasure.

His wolf was  _ wonderful _ .

Stiles practically fell on top of the meat and, before he fully thought about what he was doing, pulled it's shirt open so he could get at the sweet meat of its chest.

He dug into the meat and almost fell over at the taste after so long.

He savored the flavor for a few moments before he remembered his Wolf.

He looked up, struggling to think of a way to ask if his Wolf wanted any when he realized that his Wolf was just standing next to him watching with a look on his face that Stiles couldn't really figure out.

What if his Wolf _didn't_ eat humans like Stiles did? What if he was _disgusted_? Stiles had no idea what he would do if he lost his new home _and_ his Wolf.

And then his Wolf started pulling his meat away and Stiles fought back a wave of disappointment.

He watched dejectedly as his Wolf took away his meal, no doubt taking it to the woods so the other animals that lived there could have it instead.

Stiles hoped that his Wolf would at least not be mad that Stiles hadn't known he couldn't eat humans in front of him. Especially after Stiles had been so good about _not _eating any of the children, not even the ones who weren't wolves. He wasn't even planning on taking any of them home with him when he got his magic back.

And then to Stiles' shock his Wolf pushed the meat into Stiles' pond.

And that could only mean that his Wolf didn't mind if Stiles ate humans but he didn't want to watch. And if all Stiles had to do to have his food and his home was to eat under the water where none of the wolves could see him then that wasn't any sort of price to pay at all.

His Wolf came back to Stiles and lifted Stiles up the way he did when he wanted Stiles to sit on his lap and Stiles wrapped his arms around his Wolf's neck and hung on for the short walk back to the pond.

His Wolf truly _was_ perfect.

This must have been what his mother had felt when his father had helped her out of his steel fishing net all those years ago.

Stiles missed them both terribly but he had his Wolf now, and the children, and he didn't feel quite as alone as he had.

His Wolf tried to set Stiles down into his pond but Stiles refused to let go so he could do the thing he'd seen the other wolves do. The thing that none of them except the children did to his Wolf.

Stiles didn't know if any of the other wolves noticed but he knew his Wolf did. And Stiles, he noticed.

Stiles rubbed his cheek against his Wolf's in the wolf sign of affection. He had no idea _why_ it was a sign of affection but he didn't mind doing it.

When he finally pulled away his Wolf was so shocked that Stiles decided he was going to have to do that as often as he could.

***

The pond had frozen over and Stiles had curled against the bottom and cried at being trapped under the ice again.

He had no idea how long he floated in the freezing water before he heard a loud crack and when he looked up he saw a hole had been broken in the ice.

He pushed off the bottom of the pond and practically jumped through the hole and into his Wolf's arms.

He clung to his Wolf, shaking at how warm he was and refusing to let go.

His Wolf talked soothingly at him and to Stiles amazement walked into the big house with Stiles in his arms.

He stared around the big house, amazed that it managed to be both huge _and_ cozy at the same time. It didn't look anything like his lake house but it _felt_ like his lake house and he loved it instantly.

His Wolf walked up a long flight of stairs and then another flight of stairs and then a _third_ flight of stairs before he finally opened a door and walked into a large bedroom. He walked through the bedroom and into a huge bathroom.

He carefully set Stiles onto his feet before he leaned oven an enormous bathtub and turned on the taps for it.

Stiles was amazed at its size. It was at least three sizes bigger than the tub they'd had in the lake house and he and his mother had spent most of the winter in their tub.

This one would have been able to hold all three of them comfortably.

His Wolf straightened back up and motioned for Stiles to come over to the tub.

He stepped up next to his Wolf and dipped his hand under the faucet to check the temperature of the water.

He yelped as the water almost scalded his skin. He quickly turned the knobs to make the temperature cooler.

After he was satisfied that the water wouldn't be too cold _or_ too hot he realized that... he knew how bathtubs worked.

He was pretty sure he hadn't know how bath tubs worked the day before.

He turned to look at his Wolf in excitement and found him looking as surprised as Stiles felt.

Stiles jumped forward and hugged his Wolf hard, so happy that he was remembering human things again.

And that his Wolf had taken him out of the ice.

Stiles pulled back and carefully climbed into the tub. He sighed at how wonderful the water felt after the freezing water of the pond.

Once he was safely balanced on his knees he turned to his Wolf and tugged gently at his shirt, trying to tell him that he wanted him to get in with him.

He looked up at him with pleading eyes and hoped his Wolf wasn't afraid that Stiles would try to drown him again. Because Stiles would _never_. His Wolf was too wonderful to ever eat.

His Wolf looked down at him, a soft sort of smile on his face and Stiles might have blushed a little at the look. He didn't think that anyone had ever looked at him like that. Not that there had ever been anyone around besides his parents.

He tugged harder on his Wolf's shirt and he laughed quietly and he started to pull his shirt off so Stiles let go of it.

Stiles watched his Wolf undress and was reminded that his Wolf was very lovely. His shoulders were so wide...

Stiles slid out of the way so his Wolf could climb into the tub and the moment he was settled Stiles instantly climbed into his lap, pressing his back up against his Wolf's chest.

His Wolf rumbled loudly and wrapped his arms around Stiles chest. Stiles wrapped his own arms around one of his Wolf's arms in return, cuddling it against his chest and nuzzled his cheek against his large hand.

His other hand came up and he started to gently run his fingers through Stiles' hair, very very carefully pulling pieces of pondweed out of it. Stiles let him. He knew it was just going to die now that he wasn't in the pond anymore and he didn't really want it dying in his hair.

Eventually his Wolf picked up a bottle and held it out for Stiles to look at. He frowned at it in thought. He knew it was a kind of soap, the kind you were supposed to put in your hair but he couldn't remember the name of it.

He reached out and took the bottle, and carefully upended it over his Wolf's free hand.

His Wolf caught the glob of soap and once Stiles thought he had enough he put the bottle back on the side of the tub and pulled his Wolf's hand back to his hair.

The soap was cold against his warm skin and he shivered at the feel of it before he sighed happily at the feeling of his Wolf's hand massaging his scalp.

He melted back against his Wolf's chest and felt completely satisfied with the way the winter was shaping up.

***

His boy had spent the last few weeks testing every ounce of Peter's control.

He could have handled shared baths although they might have killed him with the way his boy went limp under his hands. And the _sounds_ he made were almost too much.

But then on top of the baths his boy wanted to walk about the house and seemed to have decided that he should probably wear clothes when he was doing that so he'd taken to _wearing Peter's clothes_. The first time he'd walked in on his boy struggling to button up one of Peter's very expensive dress shirts it had taken every ounce of his control not to jump him. He was only wearing the shirt, completely relaxed. And then he'd noticed Peter and smiled brightly at him, stepping up close to Peter with his eyes so pleading. Peter didn't hesitate to help him button the shirt for him. 

His boy leaned even closer to him, his scent so deep and clean and content as he nuzzled his face against Peter's neck in thanks. 

He slid past Peter out of the closet and Peter was helpless to follow him.  


He might have been able to live with his boy wearing his clothes and pulling Peter in a bath as often as he could get away with, but he had one habit that made Peter _want_ in a way he never wanted before.

His boy liked to flow Peter around the house when the kids weren't home, seemingly just content to spend time with Peter.

He spent most of his day in his office, working at his desk. His office doubled as the pack library so there were plenty of chairs and couches his boy could sit on. But instead he loved to curl up under Peter's desk, somehow managing to stuff blankets and pillows into the space while still leaving enough room for Peter's legs.

The first time he'd done it he hadn't brought any blankets, he'd just leaned against Peter's legs and napped with his head on Peter's knee.

It had left Peter reeling. Obviously his boy had no idea what sort of implications sitting at someone's feet could have and the innuendo of being under Peter's _desk _could be. The thought made his mouth go dry.

But even _that_ he might have been able to handle if the boy hadn't insisted on sleeping in his bed, curled up under Peter's arm, completely defenseless and wonderfully soft under his hands.  


His boy was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.

***

His boy took to living in the house like he'd always lived in one and maybe he had. Peter certainly suspected he'd used to. Although that didn't explain why he couldn't seem to speak any sort of language Peter could recognize.

He’d certainly taken over the kitchen in a way that said he knew all about cooking food beyond fish.

He was able to read cook books without a problem but as soon as he had to measure anything out he had no idea what to do and he'd somehow managed to rope Peter into helping him.

It was amazing to him how well they were able to communicate without words, working seamlessly to accomplish their shared goal.

Peter had never had that with anyone before.

It made his heart do strange things in his chest that he wasn't sure how to handle.

The rest of the pack had seemed to divide into three sections: the kids, who loved their little Pond Prince, the ones who had realized that his boy was basically just a spoiled kitten, and the ones who were just waiting for him to attack someone.

Peter had very pointedly _not_ told anyone about his boy's dietary preferences and he knew his boy was smart enough not to make it obvious either.

At least the enthusiasm that he had in taking care of the kids and making sure they had plenty of food lulled all of the pack into a sense of security around him.

As long as the pack continued to think he was harmless everything would be fine.

***

His boy lived in the house all through the winter, the pack slowly getting more and more used to him.

So used to him that most of them even adopted the kid's name for him, calling him Prince so much that he started to react to it.

Peter thought the name was fitting, he certainly acted like Peter giving him everything he wanted was his due. It was sort of adorable, and the adults in the pack seemed to have realized that Peter was completely wrapped around his boy's finger.

Peter couldn't even help it, his boy looked at him like he'd hung the moon, smiled at him like seeing Peter was the best part of his day.

No one had _ever_ looked at Peter like that and he might go above and beyond to make sure his boy _always_ looked at him like that.

Peter had worried about how he was going to supplement his boy's diet right up until he and his boy had taken a casual stroll in the woods only for them to come aross a feral omega wolf. Peter had his claws into it the moment the thought that it could hurt his boy crossed his mind. His boy had practically thrown himself on the body in excitement and hunger.  


Luckily they were far enough into the woods that none of the pack would notice anything happening while his boy ate.

His boy didn't seem to need to eat human or, rather, sentient beings very often. He'd seemed perfectly happy to eat the food in the house for at least three months straight.

That helped Peter's planing. If the time came for his boy to have a _special_ meal and there won't be any malicious supernatural creatures running around Peter would be able to find some unsavory human in town that no one would miss.

It was a relief that he wouldn't have to rely on only humans because while Beacon Hills wasn't as small as it sometimes seemed if there was suddenly a rash of missing person surly _someone_ would notice. But now he had a back up plan and that helped.

He pulled out his handkerchief and started to rub the blood off of his boys face, trying not to laugh at how indignant he looked.

Once he'd made sure his boy was clean of blood they walked back to the house where the boy went inside and Peter went to get a tarp so he could drag the rest of the body out of the woods and drop it into the pond for his boy to finish eating later.

It was well past dinner time so he knew no one would have noticed either of them leaving or coming back.

Once everything was cleaned up he went back into the house and found his boy in the kitchen, a mug cupped in his hands and a second mug sitting on the counter in front of him.

Peter didn't even try not to smile at him as he went into the laundry room to pull off his clothes that he may or may not have gotten blood on them.

Once the washing machine was started and Peter was dressed in some clean clothes he'd found he walked back into the kitchen to stand next to his boy.

His boy didn't hesitate to hand him the second mug and as he pressed it into Peter's hand he rubbed his cheek against Peter's.

Even though they'd spent months sharing scents it still made Peter's heart do strange things when his boy deliberately scent marked him.

Peter rumbled his approval at the gesture and pulled his boy closer to nuzzle into his neck.

He was surprised at how _relieved_ he felt at having found an alternate food source for his boy. He hadn't even realized how much trying to figure out how to become a serial killer had weighed on him.

Not that he would have minded all _that_ much, it was more the amount of time, effort, and planing he would have had to do to make sure he didn't attract the notice of humans _or_ the pack.

He was positive that if the pack had noticed Talia would have killed both of them, if only because Peter wouldn't have stood by and let her kill his boy.

His boy was humming softly, something Peter didn't recognize. He started to sway gently and Peter chuckled.

He looked up at Peter with a pout and Peter sighed before he set his mug down on the counter and gently took his boy's mug too.

While he was sure his boy was the epitome of grace in the water, outside of it he tended to stumble like a newborn deer.

Once the mugs were safely out of the way Peter wrapped his arms more fully around his boy and the two of them swayed around the kitchen to his humming.

This wasn't anything like what Peter had been expecting to happen in his life.

He had somehow managed to find a being that not only accepted his violent streak but _embraced_ it, who chose him above all of the pack, even the kids, and even if they couldn't speak to each other they still _understood_ each other in ways that no one had ever understood him before.

For the first time Peter felt fully _content_ with his life.

***

When the snow melted and the weather started to warm Stiles _should_ have gone back to his pond.

His mother would have. She couldn't stand living in the lake house when she could have been home.

Stiles hadn't minded spending more time with his father outside the lake but that had just been one of the differences between Stiles and his mother.

While Stiles would occasionally spend the day out in the pond the baths he convinced his Wolf to take with him seemed to satisfy any desire he had to be in the water.

After his Wolf had given Stiles _another wolf_ to eat Stiles' magic had started to come back with a vengeance and he was almost vibrating with his excitement.

Soon he would be able to go home and he couldn't wait to show his Wolf.

He knew the trust they'd created between them was strong enough that his Wolf would follow him into the water without fear.

And hopefully by the time he was strong enough he'd be able to explain what was going on. His abilities with words was coming back too.

He could finally say simple sentences and he had to fight back laughter every time he did because the wolves were always so shocked that he could actually understand words.

It was almost disgusting the way they seemed to think of him as almost an animal despite the way he took care of the children.

At least the children were happy with him being able to speak.

They asked questions almost constantly and badgered him nonstop for stories from the water.

He indulge them. His mother had taught him the stories and he could teach the children, even if none of them where _technically_ his he felt like they belonged to him in the same way his Wolf felt like he belonged to him.

The first time Stiles had managed a full sentence his Wolf had picked him up spun him around like they were in one of those ridiculous movies his father had liked. Not that Stiles could bring himself to actually mind.

His Wolf's name was Peter but Stiles only called him that when he was talking to someone else. The rest of the time he just called him Wolf. And his Wolf didn't seem to mind, he rarely called Stiles by his name, preferring to call him Little One, which Stiles would have been offended by if he hadn't said it with such gentle affection.

Spring came in full force and his Wolf never even hinted at Stiles going back to live in his pond. In fact he tended to go out to the pond and bring Stiles inside if he was still outside in the dark.

His father had never _once_ done that with his mother and while Stiles' could understand why, when his Wolf did it it made happiness seem to burst out of his chest.

He didn't think his life could get any better than it was.

***

Stiles was curled up in the bed he shared with his Wolf, his Wolf who had his arm over his side and up his back like he always did when they slept.

Stiles groaned and pushed the blankets off of him, the warmth of the house was too much with the heat his Wolf put off.

The air felt strangely heavy and he realized it was hard to breath.

For a long moment his brain was muddled with heat and sleep and he couldn't _think_.

And then the combination of sensations hit him and he was yelling, pulling at his Wolf urgently.

His Wolf was sluggish, like he could barely move. His eyes were glassy and he struggled hard to pull himself out of bed.

The scent of smoke seemed to wake him up a tiny bit because he told Stiles with slurred words to get the children out of the house while he got the rest of the wolves.

Stiles desperately didn't want to leave him when he could barely keep himself standing but his Wolf flashed his eyes at him and Stiles knew he was serious.

So he woke up the children.

They were all obviously being affected by the smoke and he had to carry both Cora and Daniel down the stairs because they weren't waking up at all.

He could feel heat coming from the kitchen so he pushed all of them out the front door and onto the porch.

The ones that could walk by themselves tried to run off the porch out onto the lawn and Stiles watched in horror as some of them bounced off of an invisible wall.

Stiles felt his magic sparking in his fingertips and touched the wall but it was like he had touched fire.

The children on the lawn were crying hard, having no idea what was going on.

Stiles tried to sooth them as much as he could but he didn't know what was going one either and his Wolf was still in the house.

Suddenly there were people stepping out from the tree line and Stiles heard the crack of gunshots.

The children all screamed and rushed back onto the porch.

Dread pulled in Stiles' stomach.

_Someone had set his house on fire._

And then they had _dared_ to shoot at _his_ children.

Determination filled Stiles and he carefully set Cora and Daniel down so that the other children could look after them, huddled down on the porch where the people with guns couldn't see them and the smoke wasn't as strong, while Stiles did what he had to do.

"Stay here." he said as firmly as he could.

The children cried and begged him to stay but he had to go back in.

If they couldn't leave the house than he was just going to have to go make sure they didn't _have_ to leave.

The porch was a wrap around and Stiles was able to walk all the way to the back of the house.

With his magic at his fingertips he felt water start to flow out of his hands. It ran under his feet, flowed in waves out of his pond and up onto the porch.

He slipped open the back door, almost fainting in both relief that he _could_ open it and from the wall of heat that hit him.

Water rushed past him and over the flames.

Slowly, so slowly the flames started to shrink.

He moved carefully inside the house and water started to run from the tap in the kitchen sink.

He could hear the hiss of steam from the laundry room, no doubt water was coming from the sink in there too.

Water started to rise around him, moving higher and higher as he walked through the downstairs of the house, flooding the rooms but extinguishing the flames.

Finally the wolves started to stumble down the stairs, leaning against each other and some carrying others, and they all stopped before they reached the water, staring at him in amazement.

The children all came back in from the porch, no doubt terrified of the people outside.

Finally his Wolf came down, his sister wolf over his shoulder.

He looked around at the water and practically shoved his sister at one of the others.

He slipped down the stairs and curled over Stiles protectively.

"What the hell are you still doing in here?" he hissed, but Stiles knew he was afraid, not angry.

"There are people outside and a barrier around the house." Stiles explained.

His Wolf snarled and gently cupped Stiles' cheek in his hand. "Watch out for the kids while I take care of this."

"They have guns." Stiles said helpfully but that only made his Wolf snarl louder.

He turned to look at one of the not wolves and together they waded through the water and out the front door.

The air crackled and Stiles felt like his ears had popped. The wolves all relaxed though, so he thought that the barrier must have been broken.

He heard his Wolf roar and his breath caught.

There was _no way_ he wasn't going to watch his Wolf defend every one, especially not when he knew his Wolf would be giving Stiles _at least one_ of the ones who had tried to kill all of them.

He felt his magic running over his fingers and an idea hit him.

"Stay here." he ordered the children and breathed a sigh of relief when none of them followed him out the door.

Stiles rushed past the other wolf on the porch and yelled "I have an idea!"

His Wolf paused where he had one of the humans under his claws.

Stiles felt water flow out of the house and across the lawn with him, sliding over the humans he could see, and farther still, past the tree line, searching for the humans that had tried to run.

Stiles knelt down in the shallow puddle of water and pressed his hands into it.

He hadn't been home is so long he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to open the door anymore.

But then he felt it. He gasped and almost cried at the familiar feeling of his _home_ under his hands.

And the door swung open.

And out of the door stepped his mother.

Stiles grinned at her.  


She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "Well it took you long enough."

Stiles fainted, the amount of power it had taken to put the flames out and summon the door home finally catching up with him.  


***

The hunter Peter was in the middle of eviscerating slid out of his grip and seemed to shrink into the water under them.

Peter didn't really care.

His boy had fallen over, no doubt because he'd done... whatever it was he had done to put the fire out.

Peter really cared more about how his boy was lying helpless in front of a stranger.

Peter stepped past the strange woman and pulled his boy up into his arms protectively.

The woman frowned at him. She looked him up and down and then seemed to dismiss him entirely.

There was something familiar about her, something that reminded him of his boy.

It was the combination of hair, pale skin, and large assortment of beauty marks that told Peter that this woman and his boy might be related.

"Who are you?" he asked, although he suspected who she was.

After his boy had started talking in full sentences he'd told Peter a tiny bit of how he'd ended up in the lake in the woods. Part of the story had been about his father dying in a house fire that hunters had set and how his mother and he had ran for almost a year before hunters had found them and tried to kill his mother.

She sneered at him, looking pointedly at his boy in his arms. "Who are _you_?"

Peter said the only thing he could think of that might mean something to her. "His Wolf."

She scoffed but she also seemed to relax a little bit.

Before either of them could say anything else Talia stumbled towards them, movements still a little jerky because of the wolfsbane the hunters had burned.

"Is the prince alright?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned much to Peter's surprise.

"I think he will be, he must have used up a lot of his recesses to put the fire out." he told her.

She nodded and looked at the strange woman, then at his boy, and then back to the strange woman before she shook her head. "I called the sheriff."

Peter tried not to sneer. He hadn't met the interim sheriff yet but he did know the man knew about the supernatural so it wasn't as bad as it could be, but it still annoyed him to call in civilians.

"What did you go and do that for?"

She smirked at him. "We'll need a police report for the insurance company. The little prince made quite the mess." she said the last bit with an actually _fond_ look on her face.

Peter felt something loosen in his chest.

Talia was _finally_ accepting his boy as a member of the pack.

The strange woman huffed and said "He has a _name_ you know."

Talia drew herself up and frowned hard at the woman. "The children named him that."

The woman's eyebrows shot up. "_Children_?"

But before any of them could keep talking a police cruiser pulled up and the new sheriff got out.

Next to him the woman gasped. "John?" she whispered and then she was sprinting across the lawn and flinging herself at the sheriff.

He heard the sheriff shout "Claudia!" before he buried his face in her neck and said, voice muffled, "I thought you were dead."

She gave a watery laugh and said "You thought _I_ was dead? I thought _you_ were dead."

And... oh.

Amazement curled through him and he looked down at his boy.

He was completely out cold but when he woke up he would be in for quite the surprise.

He looked up at the embracing couple and smiled when they tipped over, laughing and crying at the same time.

Peter watched them and his heart aching in the best of ways.

***

Stiles refused to think that he had died and gone to heaven because that would just be ridiculous at this point.

After all, both of his father's explanation on how he was still alive made complete sense to him.

Firefighters had pulled his father out of the burning lake house with moderate burns. After he got out of the hospital his father had spent the last two and half years searching everywhere for his wife and son and had finally heard a story about a strange human living in a lake in Beacon Hills.

It had been a complete long shot for him but he'd _had_ to see if the story was true. But by the time he'd found the lake Stiles had already been taken in by the wolves and his father had been so tired. And very broke so he decided to go back into law enforcement after his temporary retirement.

It was just luck that Beacon Hills had been looking for an interim sheriff and once his Wolf's sister-who was apparently the mayor? Stiles had had no idea about that despite living in the same house as her- had found out that his father knew about the supernatural she'd hired him practically on the spot.

His mother on the other hand had gotten stuck in his home because it wasn't _her_ home and she couldn't open the door from the inside so she'd just waited for Stiles to open the door for her.

At least time hadn't passed for her and she wasn't mad at him for not being able to use his magic for so long.

His parents had tried to convince him to go with them back to his father's new house and Stiles had _ached_ to go with them, terrified that if they left his sight they'd disappear again, but he'd almost lost his Wolf to hunters, he'd almost lost _all_ of his wolves and his children and he desperately needed to be with his Wolf.

His parents seemed to understand, if the knowing look they exchanged meant anything.

Stiles let them leave, trying hard not to think about what they would be doing with each other after thinking the other was dead for so long.

He turned to look for his Wolf, who had left him alone to talk to his parents while he checked the damage done to the house.

Stiles found him in the library, staring at the completely untouched room.

Stiles pressed up against his back and wrapped his arms around his chest.

"I like the library." he muttered into his Wolf's back.

His Wolf was quite for a few minutes, probably thinking over everything that had happened during the night.

"You didn't go with your parents?" he finally asked.

Stiles nuzzled into his Wolf's back and said "They're going to be _really_ busy for a while and I'd rather not see or hear that."

His Wolf chuckled and finally started to relax.

"The pack's going to stay at a hotel for until the house gets fixed up." he said.

Stiles hummed in acknowledgment.

He didn't care where they stayed as long as they were together.

"I don't want to go to a hotel though." his Wolf said and Stiles pouted.

"I don't want to stay here." he said petulantly.

His Wolf huffed softly and said "I won't make you stay here little one. I meant we should go to the cabin."

Stiles had never been to the cabin but his Wolf had told him about it before. "Okay." he said easily.

He and his Wolf went with the rest of the wolves to the hotel long enough to make sure everyone was really alright and settling into their rooms and then they climbed into his Wolf's car and he drove them out into the woods, stopping only to buy some food, before going deeper than the big house was.

It took them awhile to get there but when they did Stiles smiled at the sigh of the tiny little cabin.

It was raw wood, probably only one room with a tiny bathroom. It looked wonderful after the terrible, shocking night they'd had.

He and his Wolf pulled their bags out of the car and went into the cabin.

His wolf set about checking that the place was all intact and putting fresh sheets and blankets on the bed while Stiles plugged in the little refrigerator and put away the food they brought.

Once everything had been put away and they'd both changed into pajamas they climbed into bed and his Wolf wrapped himself around Stiles.

He nuzzled into Stiles' hair and whispered "I could have lost you tonight."

Stiles tipped his head back to brush their noses together. "Like I would ever let anything ever happen to either of us."

His Wolf rumbled softly and Stiles tried not to shiver at the sound.

And then his mouth was on Stiles' and oh... no wonder he hadn't wanted to stay at a hotel with the rest of the wolves.

Stiles melted into the kiss even though it was his first and he felt a little awkward.

His Wolf pulled back only to move his mouth onto Stiles' neck.

He could feel the little pinpricks of fangs which told him his Wolf was on the edge of losing control.

The only time his Wolf lost control was when he was bringing Stiles his special dinner.

His heart skipped a beat at the thought and moaned at the feeling of his Wolf's teeth worrying his skin hard enough to bruise.

His Wolf rolled them and caught Stiles under his body, pinning him down to the mattress firmly.

"My beautiful boy." he whispered against Stiles' skin and he gasped at the words, shivering at the way they made his stomach twist.

"My Wolf." he whispered back and his Wolf laughed.

"That's right." he said, pulling back to smile at Stiles. "We belong to each other, don't we?

**Author's Note:**

> this one was a bit different from my standard steter works and i think i binge wrote it over two days (or 6 and a half hours in total... thx 4tw and insomnia/math induced stress...)
> 
> anyway come hang out with me on [tumblr](https://graciebirdie.tumblr.com/)


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